What you need to know
- Instagram has confirmed that its standalone Boomerang and Hyperlapse apps have disappeared from Google and Apple's app stores.
- The move follows the service's announcement that it's removing the dedicated IGTV app.
- Instagram says the removals are meant "to better focus our efforts on the main app."
Instagram kicked off a new effort last year to simplify video discovery on the platform by merging Feed Video and IGTV into a single format called Instagram Video. The move formed part of a broader initiative to increase its focus on the main app, and Instagram shows no signs of stopping.
The Meta-owned platform confirmed to TechCrunch that it had removed its standalone Boomerang and Hyperlapse apps from the Play Store and App Store. It makes sense given that both creative tools have long been available in the main app as camera features.
Instagram's latest removal comes hard on the heels of its recent announcement that the standalone app for IGTV would be discontinued. The company said in a blog post that its goal was to integrate "all video on the main Instagram app."
Shuttering the old dedicated apps for Boomerang and Hyperlapse is a step in the same direction.
"We’ve removed support for the standalone Boomerang and Hyperlapse apps to better focus our efforts on the main app,” an Instagram representative told TechCrunch. "We’ll continue working on new ways for people to be creative and have fun on Instagram."
The platform's latest move comes as no surprise since these standalone apps are no longer needed at a time when many of the best Android phones can already handle an overstuffed photo and video-sharing app.
Hyperlapse and Boomerang were introduced as standalone apps in 2014 and 2015, respectively, to keep Instagram lean for less powerful smartphones available at the time. Fast forward to today, and Instagram is ready to integrate a slew of features in order to keep up with the competition.
This is evidenced by the launch of Reels, its TikTok clone. Instagram has also made short-form videos a priority, with a dedicated Reels button now sitting in the center of its bottom navigation tab.
As of this writing, searching for Boomerang and Hyperlapse in Google and Apple's app stores produces no results.
Instagram didn't formally announce the removal. That said, Apptopia informed TechCrunch that the apps were quietly taken down after March 1.
However, Instagram's standalone app for creating collages, called Layout, remains available to download via the Play Store, even though it's already present in the main app.
